On October 26, 2011, we will be hosting a booth at the 2011 North American Technology Demonstration (NATD), a showcase of non-lethal capabilities in support of ISAF and counterterrorism applications. The 2011 NATD is sponsored by NATO and jointly hosted by the United States Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapon Program and the Canadian Department of National Defence.

As we announced earlier, we will be competing in the World Finals of the 2011 Global Security Challenge, with our Impulse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ImpSAR) through-wall and underground imaging system.

Concurrently, we will be presenting ImpSAR and the other key project, High-Power Electromagnetic System (HPEMS) for remote immobilization of non-cooperative vehicles and boats, at PitchLive London expo, an innovative marketplace that includes the GSC finals. The expo will take place at the Business Design Centre in London on October 24-25, 2011. Come and meet us!

Eureka Aerospace's through-wall and underground imaging solution, ImpSAR, was announced the winner of the West Coast regional final of the 2011 Global Security Challenge in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) category. The regional final took place on September 26, 2011, in San Diego, CA.

We will now advance to the World Final of the Challenge, which will take place in London on October 24-25, to compete for the prize fund with the other winners from Europe, the UK, Asia, and the Middle East.

A chapter by Eureka's Dr. Giorgio Franceschetti and Dr. James Tatoian, "The Impulse Synthetic Aperture Radar," is in a new book, Advances in Environmental Remote Sensing: Sensors, Algorithms, and Applications (CRC Press, ed. Qihao Weng). Details and ordering information are available via CRC Press and Amazon.

A chapter by Eureka's Dr. James Tatoian, "Impulse SAR and Its Application for Through-the-Wall Detection and Identification of People and Weapons," is featured in a new book, Through-the-Wall Radar Imaging (CRC Press, ed. Moeness G. Amin). Details and ordering information are available via CRC Press and Amazon.

Giorgio Franceschetti, James Tatoian, and George Gibbs have presented a paper at the 25th Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium (PIERS 2009), which took place in Beijing, China, on March 23-27, 2009. The talk, Looking into Transient Scattering, is in the Proceedings of PIERS 2009, p. 610 (download the Abstract PDF).

Cooking The Getaway Car: A two-second blast of microwave energy could stop a car in its tracks--and bring an end to Rosco P. Coltrane-style hot pursuits.

Dramatic high-speed car chases make for good television, but in reality they're awfully impractical. Later this summer the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will test a safer, though equally electrifying, way to stop fugitive cars--with the blast of a microwave beam.

The technology exploits a hidden weakness in most modern cars: microchips. Microwave energy causes a voltage spike in sensitive silicon circuitry, potentially crippling chips wired into everything from hydraulic steering columns to fuel-injection systems. After a few seconds bathed in the beam, an engine would simply stall and the car coast to a stop, says CEO James Tatoian of Eureka Aerospace, the Pasadena, California-based firm developing the prototype with funding from the U.S. government.

That built-in protection makes microwaves potentially safer than makeshift roadblocks, tire-popping spike strips and the other crude tools that authorities employ to catch bad boys on the run, says Commander Charles "Sid" Heal of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. "We are not going to chase these guys all over the streets, endangering lives, if we can help it," - he says.

The idea of a powerful ray gun has been a staple of science-fiction writing for decades. But a "weapon" that shoots invisible beams of energy could be making its way into law-enforcement hands soon.

The technology isn't exactly something that would replace a police officer's handgun. In fact, the system being developed by Eureka Aerospace in Pasadena, Calif., couldn't even be crammed into a standard pistol holster.

But the developers say their device, which uses technology more closely related to flash cooking than Flash Gordon, may help stop criminals and terrorists in their tracks.

James Tatoian, chief executive of Eureka, says the High Power Electromagnetic System is designed to disable cars -- say, those fleeing from police officers -- using bursts of microwave energy.

"Basically, since the 1970s, every car is built with some sort of microprocessor-controlled system -- like the ignition control and fuel pump control a lot of vital car systems," says Tatoian. "If you introduce a parasitic current into their wires, it leads to a power surge which in turn burns out those microprocessors."

Once the car's chips are disabled, the vehicle will gradually slow to a halt, allowing police or other security forces to safely approach and apprehend the driver.

If a Los Angeles-area scientist has his way, car chases may become as antiquated as horse-mounted cavalry.

James Tatoian, chief executive of Eureka Aerospace in Pasadena, California, is developing a system that uses microwave energy to interfere with microchips inside cars. Once the chip is overloaded with excessive current, the car ceases to function, and will gradually decelerate on its own, he said.

"If you put approximately 10 or 15 kilovolts per meter on a target for a few seconds, you should be able to bring it to a halt," Tatoian said.

Most cars built in the United States since 1982 have some type of on-board microprocessor. Today, the processors are advanced enough to control functions such as fuel injection and GPS equipment.

Eureka Aerospace's High Power Electromagnetic System consists of a series of wires arranged in a 5-foot-by-4-foot rectangular array. The interference is emitted in a conical shape outward from the device.

Tatoian said that while he is not the first to come up with the idea of using electromagnetic interference to stop cars, he has been able to reduce the size and power consumption of such a device so that it would be much more portable.

It is small enough such that it could be mounted onto a helicopter, or onto a law enforcement pursuit vehicle -- an application that interests the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Eureka Aerospace hopes to have a working prototype that the sheriff's department can test by late summer. The National Institute of Justice and the U.S. Marine Corps may also be potential early clients. The company's early tests indicate that the car-stopping device should be functional at a range of 300 feet.

Cmdr. Sid Heal, who evaluates technology for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said that after seeing a preliminary demonstration of the device last year, he was very enthusiastic about its prospects.

"Everybody on the globe is interested in a technology like this," he said. "Every law enforcement agency and every military agency in the world will jump on this. I can say that with absolute confidence."

In current situations where police need to disable a car they are pursuing, sometimes the officers must resort to spike strips, which are designed to puncture the vehicle's tires. Heal said that with an electromagnetic interference system, a potentially dangerous outcome (such as loss of control from flat tires) could be avoided.

"The beautiful part of using the (microwave) energy is that it leaves the suspect in control of the car," he said. "He can steer, he can brake, he just can't accelerate."

Another benefit to such a technology, Heal said, is that it would give officers the ability to pinpoint where they want to stop a car -- on a freeway overpass, for instance -- which would limit a suspect's opportunities for escape.

"It's going to change law enforcement tactics," he said.

If the technology is able to prove worthy, it may also change the behavior of potential criminals. Heal said most people who lead police on car chases have never committed such an act before, and they might think twice if they recall the presence of such a device.

"You would automatically remember you can't get away," he said. "What I think we're going to get is compliance. That would be a breakthrough beyond anything of what anyone has provided in the past."

And long before this latest rash in dangerous pursuits, law enforcement agencies have been searching for new tools and tactics — something to allow cops to shut down a chase before anyone gets hurt. Frank Buckley joins us live in a look at technology that might some day turn that goal into reality.

TV helicopter crews, your glory days may be numbered. Police in the car-chase capital of the world are getting set to stop fugitives in their tracks.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept. has ordered a high-energy radio wave device developed by Eureka Aerospace in El Segundo, Calif. Troopers will be able to use it to scramble the digital brains -- computer chips that control fuel injection, engine firing, and other functions -- in most cars. With its engine shut down, the targeted car would roll to a stop.

The ray, which proved effective at a range of 160 feet in testing in early July, projects from an antenna that can be mounted on the roof of police cruisers. The company is developing beams that could either permanently fry the car's electronics or simply temporarily disrupt them.

L.A. has averaged over two car chases a day in recent years, causing interminable traffic snarls and nearly 300 collisions. The zapper will probably go into production for Tinseltown cops after a prototype is finished at the end of this year, says James Tatoian, Eureka's chairman and CEO.